FLORENCE, Ala. – Pro Troy Eakins of Nixa, Mo., caught five bass weighing 13 pounds, 12 ounces Friday to land in the top spot heading into the final round of the $253,325 EverStart Series Central Division event on Alabama’s Pickwick Lake. Eakins leads the 10 pros who advanced to Saturday’s final round based on their catch weight Friday, and these 10 will compete Saturday for a top pro award worth as much as $61,900 in cash and prizes.
The Pickwick Lake event has been marked with changing conditions, and Friday was no exception. After water levels dropped Thursday night, several of the 20 semifinalists found themselves looking for new fishing holes. Eakins, however, remained undeterred and used an Eakins jig in the back of creeks on chunk rock banks to catch his limit.
“I think (the lower water) seemed to help me get more bites than I got yesterday,” said Eakins, who is fishing his first season in the EverStart Series. “It kind of concentrated the fish a little bit. The wind blew pretty hard, but I like the sunny weather because it seems like it positions the fish a little better, and I can kind of tell where they’re going to be.”
Rounding out the top five pros are Jonathan Newton of Rogersville (five bass, 10 pounds, 12 ounces); Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn. (five bass, 10 pounds, 10 ounces); Chad Lynch of Birmingham (five bass, 10 pounds, 4 ounces); and Larry Steeby of Parsons, Kan. (five bass, 9 pounds, 3 ounces).
Ten co-anglers also advanced to the final round, and Kerry Barnett of Waldron, Ark., leads the pack thanks to a five-bass catch weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces.
“I’m fishing shallow water and not doing anything special,” said Barnett, who caught his bass on a Rogue jerkbait. “It was really tough. The fish weren’t doing anything, and I was very fortunate just to get a bite. You never expect to lead. I had a decent bag of fish, but it was tough to get them.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Mark King of Gurdon, Ark. (five bass, 7 pounds, 7 ounces); Gary Whiteley of Catoosa, Okla. (four bass, 6 pounds, 4 ounces); Brian Burch of Florence (four bass, 6 pounds, 3 ounces); and Darrell Beasley of Lawrenceburg, Tenn. (four bass, 5 pounds, 9 ounces).
A total of 132 bass were caught Friday, including 14 five-bass limits. One hundred percent were released alive.
McFarland Park in Florence will host the event’s final takeoff at safe light Saturday morning, followed by the final tournament weigh-in at the Wal-Mart store located at 3100 Hough Road in Florence at 4 p.m.
One hundred and ninety-eight pros and 198 co-anglers descended upon Pickwick Lake Wednesday and fished for two days for one of 20 spots in Friday’s semifinal round. Weights were cleared for Friday’s competition, and the field was cut again to the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers based on Friday’s catch weight. Weights will be cleared again for Saturday’s competition, and anglers will compete for position and prize money.
The winning pro will take home a guaranteed cash award of $10,000 plus a new Ranger 519VS Comanche equipped with Garmin electronics and powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard. If the winner is the original owner of a Ranger boat, he will receive an additional $10,000 cash bonus from Ranger for a total of $61,900 in cash and prizes. Ranger will also award an additional $3,000 to the winner if he is a Ranger Cup participant, and Garmin will award $1,000 to the winner if his boat is equipped with a fixed-mount Garmin Fishfinder or combination GPS/Sounder.
The winning co-angler is guaranteed $5,000 cash. If the winning co-angler is a registered Ranger owner, he will also receive a new Ranger 519VS Comanche for a total of $27,800 in cash and prizes.
Four divisions – Eastern, Central, Northern and Western – comprise the 2003 EverStart Series. Each division stages four regular-season tournaments leading up to the no-entry-fee $335,975 EverStart Series Championship, which will be held on Old Hickory Lake near Gallatin, Tenn., Oct. 29-Nov. 1.
In EverStart Series competition, pros supply the boats, control boat movement and fish from the front of each boat against other pros. Co-anglers fish from the back of each boat and compete against other co-anglers.
FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing, administers the EverStart Series. Other FLW Outdoors-sanctioned tournament trails include the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, the Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour and the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye League. FLW Outdoors will award as much as $20 million through 175 tournaments in 2003.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its six tournament trails. Wal-Mart has been the title sponsor of FLW Outdoors since 1997. For a complete list of FLW Outdoors sponsors and for more information about the premier products and services they offer, please explore FLWOutdoors.com.
FLW Outdoors is named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood.